▪ I. † butch, v. Obs. exc. dial.
[incorrect back-formation from butcher n.]
† a. trans. To cut up, hack (obs.). b. intr. (north. dial.) To follow the trade of a butcher.
| 1785 [see butching]. 1834 Sir H. Taylor Artevelde ii. iii. i, I shall be butching thee from nape to rump. 1846 J. T. Brockett Gloss. N. Count. Wds. (ed. 3) I. 75 Butch, to practice the trade of a butcher, to kill. 1875 Lanc. Gloss. (E.D.S.) 63 He use't to be a farmer, but he butches neaw. |
Hence butch-knife = butcher's knife.
| a 1849 Poe Wks. (1864) III. 172 White throats sweetly jagged With a ragged butch-knife dull. |
▪ II. butch, n.1 slang (orig. U.S.).
(bʊtʃ)
[Origin unknown, but perh. = next.]
A tough youth or man; a lesbian of masculine appearance or behaviour. Also attrib. or as adj. In the U.S. also applied to a type of short haircut, crew-cut.
| [1902 Pinkerton's Nat. Detective Agency Circular 3 Feb., George Parker, alias ‘Butch’ Cassidy, alias George Cassidy. 1930 D. Runyon Guys & Dolls (1932) 71 (title) Butch minds the baby.] 1941 Auden New Year Let. iii. 72 And culture on all fours to greet A butch and criminal élite. 1947 Cromwellian May 35 Butch, a strongly-built person. 1949 W. R. Burnett Asphalt Jungle (1950) v. 30 His white-blond hair disfigured by a butch haircut. 1950 Neurotica Spring 37, I no longer remotely resembled a ‘butch’ fairy. 1954 News (San Francisco) 10 Sept. 1 Then some of the girls began wearing mannish clothing. They called themselves ‘Butches’. 1954 Observer 26 Sept. 9/2 The homosexual Stoics with their crew-cuts and ‘butch’ behaviour. 1965 New Statesman 26 Mar. 493/1 This rejection of the female role is very common among the ‘butch’ type of lesbian. 1966 Ibid. 13 May 696/3 One of the femmes, secure in the loving protection of her butch. 1967 W. Murray Sweet Ride ix. 148 Three burly men with butch haircuts. |
▪ III. butch, n.2
Colloq. abbrev. of butcher n. (see quots.).
| 1919 Downing Digger Dialects 14 Butch, doctor. 1942 W. Faulkner Go Down, Moses 164 Boon bought..a bottle of beer from the news butch. 1960 Wentworth & Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang 80/2 Butch,..a vendor. |